UK Children's Authors Push To Include Sex In Fiction For Kids

What was the first book that informed you about the mechanics of sex? Was it Judy Blume's Forever? Or — like me — that falling-apart '70s copy of Lady Chatterley's Lover on your mom's bookshelf that you snuck under your bed? (It's old as hell, but that shit is raunchy.)

A new dialogue is opening up about including sexuality in children's literature. UK children's laureate and YA author Malorie Blackman told the Telegraph yesterday that she believes including sex in fiction for kids will expose them to it in a shame-free, healthy and positive "safe setting" rather than force them to rely on word of mouth and porn. She came to the conclusion after reading an article that disturbed her about a teen girl being brutalized by her boyfriend during sex, because everything he'd learned was from degrading porn.

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Philip Pullman, the author of middle-grade classic The Golden Compass, has backed Blackman up on the idea of presenting sex to kids in literature — he told the Daily Mail that kids can benefit from seeing sex in a "moral context" where "actions have consequences," and adds that during these formative years, kids should be able to read about the tough grown-up issues that will present themselves in the future:

"I don't think there's anything children encounter in life — and heaven knows they encounter all sorts of awful things in life, ranging from bullying to drug taking to all sorts of things — which is forbidden to them in literature. Literature ought to be able to cope with everything they cope with in life."

They have a point. Considering sex ed for kids of all ages is consistently under attack (even in college), YA lit is a great place to teach kids about sex without proselytizing. And the fact is, major children's franchises like Harry Potter — who, by the fifth book, was certainly at an age for sexuality to be cropping up — are curiously nonsexual. We're so worried about our kids being too impressionable that we forget that can be a positive if we use it the right way. Consider this: Captain America was the only book banned more often than 50 Shades of Grey.